When babies feed from a bottle, they cannot control their own intake as well as babies feeding at the breast.

When a baby sucks at the breast, she’s in control of how much she drinks because she can suck in a way where she swallows or in a way where she doesn’t swallow. She can also be at the breast and not suck at all or she can just come off.

When drinking from a bottle, the firm bottle teat inside a baby’s mouth gives her a strong stimulus to suck and when she sucks, she gets milk whether she needs the milk or not. The relatively fast and continuous flow of milk from a bottle means she needs to keep sucking or be flooded with milk.

Nonetheless, you can help your bottle-fed baby to better be able to control her intake by using a paced bottle feeding method.

You can read more about paced bottle feeding (also dubbed, bottle nursing) and other helpful bottle feeding tips here.

#3: Unsettled Behaviour Doesn’t Always Mean Your Baby Is Hungry

Just like young breastfed babies, young bottle-fed babies also have periods where they cry a lot and sleep very little. These periods are often more about babies seeking emotional regulation as opposed to being hungry.

During these times, breastfed babies often cluster feed , meaning they have a lot of short feeds close together. Because bottle-fed babies cannot control their intake like breastfed babies, during these periods, trying to settle your bottle-fed baby in ways other than with feeding or offering only small amounts at a time (e.g. about 30mL).

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Feeding your bottle-fed baby according to her own individual need by using a paced bottle feeding method helps her get the amount of milk she needs.

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Renee Kam IBCLCCONTRIBUTOR

Renee Kam is mother to Jessica and Lara, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), a physiotherapist, author of 'The Newborn Baby Manual' and an Australian Breastfeeding Association Counsellor. In her spare time, Renee enjoys spending time with family and friends, horse riding, running and reading.

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